How to Make the Transition to Employee Monitoring Easier for Generation X

In most businesses the employee structure is very diverse. Depending on where the business operates, employees may be predominantly young, mature or mixed. But, the truth is that in almost every case, if you’re a business owner, you’ll have someone from Generation X or a few Xennials as your employees. Those are great people with a lot of knowledge but what's sometimes an issue with them is the fact that they aren't often familiar with modern technology. So, if you opt to implement tracking software for computer to your company, the question which arises is how to display it to senior employees who are in most cases very skeptical.

Why They Might Be Skeptical?

Now, it might seem funny to some people that Gen X feels skeptical about mobile phones or computers since it’s a modern technology and everybody uses it. But hey, you’re a youngster and were pretty much born when technology boom happen. You were familiar with all of it since you were a kid. It’s a bit different for senior people. 

Back in the days, technology wasn’t so important for conducting a job. And people generally didn’t trust technology in the same degree as they do today. Back then, it was believed that everything was possible with your two hands. And it’s a legit point of view, in most cases even today handmade products are usually of better quality and often quite expensive. Sure, some seniors are familiar with modern tech and aren’t afraid to use it. But they are in the minority. And, since your company operates on computers, your senior employees are definitely familiar with the PC. It was a long battle, but they accepted it’s inevitable to use it for their work.

Fast forward, now you are here, an owner of a business and you want to implement a computer spy monitoring software. We emphasize spy (even though such software has nothing to do with spying of your employees) just because this is how senior employees see it: “Monitoring my work? That has to be spying. And you’re probably gathering all my data and using it without my consent for God knows what. And this thing knows exactly what I’m doing at any point of the day. I won’t use it.”

Those are just a few sentences that might be running through your employees’ minds when you mention employee monitoring. So, it’s extremely important to talk to them and try to explain what’s employee monitoring, and how exactly does it benefit to them.

Talk to Your Employees

This is probably the most important step you need to take... You need to have a face to face conversation with each one of them and try to explain why you want to implement such software and how it works. People like honesty and if you are open to your employees, it’s a step in the right direction.

Try to explain that it isn’t a spying software and it won’t gather data from them if they aren’t okay with it. And this is the biggest problem for your senior employees. Fear their data will be leaked and someone is watching them. Explain that computer monitor service software isn’t there to damage them. It’s a useful tool which will help the business develop but help them keep track of their work as well. Let them think of it as a safe system which just keeps an eye of all employees for their well being. And let them know they aren’t the only one. Every single employee in the company will be using such a tool, so if they see everyone else is okay with it, maybe they’ll loosen up a bit. 

Provide Training

You need to be patient with your senior fellow workers. Even if they soften up and accept staff monitoring program, there’s still a long way to perfection. They need to know how to use all the functionalities which this software has. The best way to do this is to create a few training sessions where employees would see how the program works and learn how to use it.

This is a win-win situation. Firstly they’ll understand the program better and see that it isn’t a spying software and secondly, they’ll know how does computer tracking software work and will be ready to use it in the workplace.

Conclusion

If you want to implement employee tracking software to your business in which you have senior employees, the key is to talk to them about it and explain how it works. They need to know that such a program will help them be more productive and that it isn’t there to spy on them. 

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